District Attorney Asked To Probe Mississippi Courthouse Caper

A top Hinds County official has asked the county district attorney to investigate how three supporters of Senate candidate Chris McDaniel got locked inside the county courthouse with primary ballots on Election Night.

The Clarion-Ledger reported that county supervisor Robert Graham said he had asked district attorney Shuler Smith to investigate the incident. Graham said that Smith had agreed.

The district attorney's office did not immediately respond to TPM's request for comment.

“Even if there was no criminal activity, it still doesn’t account for why these three individuals were in the county courthouse afterhours with no county employee,” Graham told the newspaper. “We have no information whether they had criminal intentions or not. We don’t know how long they were in there. We need to have a total accounting.”

The county sheriff concluded its investigation Thursday and said no laws had been broken and no criminal activity had been placed. The three McDaniel allies -- Janis Lee, Scott Brewster and Rob Chambers -- had apparently entered the courthouse some time after 11:30 a.m. CT and got locked inside. They were let out some time after 3 a.m. CT by law enforcement.

The sheriff said that the primary ballots had been secured the entire time, and the trio had access only to hallways and restroom areas.